#9 Jeremiah Morrow

Jeremiah Morrow

Born: October 6, 1771

Died: March 22, 1852

Political Party: Democratic - Republican

Term of Office: December 28, 1822- December 19, 1826
Buried: Union Cemetery Loveland, Ohio

No. 42 of 58

     Jeremiah Morrow was born in eastern Pennsylvania in 1771 to a farming family. Long before a battle would make the town a household name, Morrow called the area around Gettysburg, PA home. He moved to the Northwest Territory in his mid 20's. After getting married he eventually settled around the mouth of the Little Miami River in what is now Warren County, Ohio.

   Morrow entered politics around the time that Ohio was gearing up for statehood. And so he was elected to the Territorial legislature in 1801. At the time Territorial Governor Arthur St. Claire opposed statehood. Morrow joined the opposition against him, which was lead by Thomas Worthington. In 1802, Morrow served as a delegate at Ohio's Constitutional Convention. 

    Once statehood was achieved in 1803, with help from President Jefferson, Morrow's neighbors in Warren County elected him to a seat in the Ohio State Senate. But shortly after, Morrow was selected to be Ohio's first Representative in the United State House of Representatives. What's more, for the first 10 years of Ohio's statehood, Morrow was Ohio's only Representative in the House. In 1813, Morrow left the House of Representatives to serve in the U.S. Senate. He remained in the Senate until 1819. 

     After 16 years a Representative in Washington, Morrow returned home and got involved in a group that was trying to build a canal from from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. The Ohio Board of Canal Commissioners included Morrow's old political ally Thomas Worthington as well as another Governor Ethan Allen Brown, among others. Their efforts lead to the constructions of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal in 1825. 

     Morrow ran for Governor in 1822. He won the election, beating acting Governor Allen Trimble and another candidate. Morrow then won reelection in 1824. He was Governor at a time when when a lot of things came together to create an economic upswing. The National Road made it to Ohio during Morrow's Governorship. This made it easier for people along the east coast to move west in search of brighter futures. Canals also increased economic productivity in Ohio. 

    Morrow chose not to seek a third term in 1826. Instead he ran, and won election to the Ohio State Senate in 1827. After a term in the State Senate, Morrow returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1829. Through the next 14 years, he would serve about 7 in the U.S. House. Meanwhile, he helped form the Whig Party in Ohio. Finally, in 1843, he retired from politics and returned home. 

  

    In his retirement from State Politics he remained active. He served as the first President of the Little Miami Railroad, ran a saw mill and served as a school director, among other things. He died at the age of 80 in 1852. 

    I visited the gravesite of Governor Morrow on a day in late April 2017. I had a busy day in the Cincinnati area and stopped at 3 new Governor gravesites on my way home. Morrow was the 2nd of the 3 new stops I made. The first was Governor John Pattison and the third was Thomas Corwin.

Governor Morrow and I